597: Kings of Anglia: Pompey postponement and an in-depth look at January via the Mailbag

29:32Mark Heath:um my cardio is terrible not as many as they were i mean we used to be right up the back of the stand i understand that but the thing is that the press lounge and the press box are now separate so they're further apart and they're also the two separate staircases you go all the way to the top of one all the way back down and then you got to go all the way back to the top of the the press but i mean yes we were further up but it's almost like when it was before it was almost like climbing a mountain where you go up halfway you go into the press lounge then you do the other half to get to the very top whereas this just feels like you're kind of uh wrap up a drain pipe a little bit my cardio is terrible i'm trying my best i'm trying my best um with with as uh we spoke about last week my cold water swimming but um yeah my cold plunges but uh we're not there yet hopefully when i get there it'll be easier but at the moment um i do get up to the press box sometimes and i'm i'm puffing a bit i struggle to think of any kind of things that i don't like i mean surely i can imagine that had you been moved for to make way for the new press facilities that would be that would be irksome um but generally speaking it's night and day compared to what it was i mean when ashton first i remember speaking to ashton on his first day and saying you know portman road is our home but it's it's kind of not looking its best sort of thing and and you look at it now it is night and day and another thing i really liked is quite small but it's the dugouts i mean portman road dugouts before were basically just a little shed it looked it looked a little bit tin pot but now it's you know got all the kind of comfy gamer chairs even the blue um astroturf that surrounds the pitch just adds to the adds to the look of it doesn't it the feel of it um it just feels like a like a premier league club now which of course is is what they were and hopefully what they will be again um let's stick with portman road let's stick with blue sky rob hughes on blue sky says mckenna's been critical of the atmosphere at portman road this season more than one occasion and to be honest he does have a point what can be done to lift it personally I don't think it helps having blue action stuck up in the corner of the cobalt, or is it all just flat by comparison with the 22 to 24 seasons, which obviously we've spoken about before that, that feeling is probably never going to be quite the same again.

31:42Mark Heath:What do you make of the, of the atmosphere? Is it again linked to expectations at the club this season? Do you think? Yeah, both things are important that would I move blue action personally? Cause it feels like they've kind of got this little slice of pie that's towards the back. and sometimes I do these really cool displays and I'm craning over. Oh, yeah, that looks kind of cool. That looks good. But not the best place for that. Is there somewhere else where they can be more the center of attention to try and raise things? Possibly other things that always do it. Safe standing is a key aspect that I think we should see more of.

32:21You could go down the route of, and I understand that this can be unpopular in a lot of ways, singing sections. I know it's not hugely popular, but ultimately some fans aren't going to want to be spending their entire game screaming Blue and White Army. For example, do you want to essentially put all the noise into one area to make it sound louder? There's a good chance it could be an unpopular shout that one, but I'll float it anyway. And then, yeah, the expectations will obviously play a part where there's less of a buzz around this season as it's come off the back of a relegation. Ipswich are expected to go back up.

33:00They're underperforming, to be perfectly honest, even if they were winning games 3-4, 5-0 every week. I still think it would be like a, yay, we're going back up kind of feeling rather than a kind of huge, hostile, exciting atmosphere. I think that it doesn't help that they are the favourites hosting the underdogs in every game. so you're almost having you're welcoming all these teams in say oxford and a lot of town fans and neutrals have said well you know what oxford brought half the number they brought a few hundred fans and they sounded louder than town fans but for oxford it's a huge game they're coming to a team that's worth millions more than them uh against a side that's been in the premier league and they're fighting for something to stay up and it's kind of a bit backs to the wall understandably so like we saw with town in the premier league i thought the away atmospheres and some of the home atmospheres were great.

33:51But then transitioning that into the championship, again, having come back down is so much harder, where how many fans are going to be up for a home game against QPR or against Oxford or against Swansea or against Stoke, whereas it's so much easier for that against Manchester United, against Chelsea, against City, against Arsenal, against Liverpool, against Brentford even. So, yeah, it's naturally going to be like that. It's the price that comes with success. how many times did we go to a Premier League stadium last year and say this atmosphere is rubbish? That's because it is sometimes, and it's quite easy to become a bit more disillusioned with football.

34:28Mark Heath:Right then, let's return to January, shall we? This is from Matt Casburn on Instagram. He says, hi, Kings. Great coverage as usual, especially over the busy Christmas period. Thank you very much. How many players do you see leaving in January and who? So departures, this is AJ. Now, we've already talked about Humphreys. We've talked about Bagot going out on loan. it sounds like that would be almost certain. But are there any others? You can see we talked about Sammy Smoddix potentially last week, given the kind of logjam at number 10 and whether or not Connor Chaplin might return. Any others you'd look at?

35:01Mark Heath:I suppose Harry Clark would be on that list as well. Yeah. Step number one, let's cut down the right backs. A football team does not need four right backs. So Harry Clark and Ben Johnson. if you can sell him at this point good, he signed him on a free it hasn't worked out, I'm very sad it hasn't worked out because I thought it would be a really good signing it just, yeah, for whatever reason has not clicked for either party so if someone can take him and what I imagine would be his quite high wages on then that would be good if he can get a fee, Harry Clark I understand that Sheffield United would be interested in signing him this month I think there was a bit of a mix-up in the Clark reporting actually because Jack Clark was linked that's right yeah Harry Clark is kind of how I've seen this one so Harry Clark is a target for Sheffield United, Chris Wilder really likes Harry Clark again if the right money is there do you let him go?

36:02Yeah for FFP to be perfectly honest but a loan would also be on the table then yeah Baggett and Humphreys would be the loanies I'd look at any others can I throw in some controversial ones Smoddix as we've mentioned again with his absence it's difficult to we're just going off what we're being told at the moment we can't really do a great deal more than that with the Smoddix rumours so we'll have to wait and see what happens with him going into the next couple, the Blackburn game and the Blackpool game before that but I wouldn't be hugely surprised to see him as a as a mover this month, which would require another number 10 coming in, I would say.

36:46And then the other one that I know Stu mentioned a bit on the last pod, do you need to balance the right wing situation? This will be really difficult because you obviously are going to keep Sindra. He's the championship record signing. Casey McAteer, you're not going to sell him because that would be ridiculous after six months. He can't go on loan to another championship club because he's already played for two in Leicester and Ipswich. So if he was to leave on loan, it would need to be abroad, which is a trickier one to do for six months. Wes Burns? Oh, do you loan out Wes Burns? Say, let's have six months, almost in a Chiyo way, six months of you playing week in, week out at Club X, and we get to the summer and we can reassess your contract, reassess where we're at as a club.

37:27Are we a Premier League club or a Championship club? And we can go from there. There are lots of reasons why not to do that. But if you're balancing the squad, you want to get people in. Does it make sense to have three right-wingers? And the answer is probably no. and if you cut anyone, I think it will have to be Wes, but I wouldn't hang my hat on town doing that. Let's...

37:49Mark Heath:I don't like that. I don't like that idea. Like a cat. Let me throw one more name in, a bit cheeky. Jadon Filogene. Oh, after the links to Bournemouth. Well, any argument that someone comes in and throws silly, because obviously this is the time of season where Premier League teams come in and throw some money around and get players who are performing, in kind of higher level championship sides jayden filagene what do you think that they'd part with him what would it take so let's address the bournemouth links first because he's been kind of linked to to to bournemouth as a semenyo replacement um my first area of skepticism is that semenyo was a right winger and every time i've seen jayden filagene play on the right it's been an absolute disaster so if bournemouth are uh doing that i have some very serious questions about their recruitment team.

38:41I don't think that, given that he's not really performing at the Premier League level, it would be the wise way to spend money. And ultimately, from an Ipswich perspective, he cost£20 million. I think as a minimum, it would take, and that would probably be if they wanted to move him on, £30 million, £35 million to sell him and potentially nearer to£40 million. Is Jadon Filagin a player worth that amount? No, he's not. And that's not because he's not an incredibly talented player. that's not because he's not a brilliant footballer or anything like that. It's because he's been delivering in the championship and championship players rarely go for that kind of money without stepping up and delivering in the Premier League first.

39:22So that will be one, I think, to reassess in the summer or probably more likely, I'd say, after that. I think the hope would be that Jadon Filagene fires hip switch to promotion. We get to see a bit of what he's about in the Premier League, hopefully in a better size than the one that played in the prem last season and um maybe then that there might be some bigger interest but i cannot see a world in which he moves on uh i cannot see a world in which there would be uh interest from ipswich to sell him or um any interest from other teams that would uh match the valuation of 35 million pound plus okay let's do

39:59Mark Heath:a couple more january then we've got some kind of more light hearted ones we can finish with Andrew Woodfield on Twitter says are we 100 % obligated to buy our loan easy if promoted? I'd imagine if given the choice you'd rather not have to sign ACPOM for the Premier League considering he's struggling to make an impact this season. Now one assumes there will be all sorts of clauses in contracts and that kind of thing in terms of whether or not they have to buy them or not. Yeah, you would assume so. I don't think that a loan with obligation to buy IFX is as straightforward as it seems. I think that if Tuba ACPOM came in in game number two, did his ACL, was out for the season, and if Switch got promoted, I would imagine that there would be something in there that would say, well, hang on, he's not started the game.

40:43We're not doing the deal. I don't know what that would be for him or for Azon or for Jens or for Cedric Kipre. I would imagine that in Atpom's case, it will probably be quite a low threshold because Ajax have been keen to move him desperate even to move him on um he had the option to go to birmingham over the summer for what would have been a permanent deal he turned that down to come to ipswich and ajax said okay we'll let you go to ipswich um knowing that they wouldn't get the money in immediately knowing that he technically is still their player so that that in itself comes with a risk on their part and i think they will have lowered that risk by saying you know it's only going to take x amount of appearances rather than a bigger amount it's only going to take this amount of goals or this amount of contributions.

41:33So, yeah, I mean, the Chubracpon signing in general felt a little bit weird over the summer, to be perfectly honest. It hasn't really worked out. It's not going to be a case. I cannot see a world of a town cancelling that this month, but you would imagine if they got promoted, they would look to go down a different route, so that's going to be fascinating. The same is going to count for Ivan Asson, what's going to happen with Enzuki Euster. They're definitely going to want to sign Cedric Kipre, that's for sure get him in the door as soon as possible um he used to probably in the same boat to be perfectly honest but um yeah tricky balance to find but things aren't as kind of black and white as obligation to buy so he is going to sign for this club just as an aside with the

42:15Mark Heath:keep right thing clearly you know i would i would argue that at the moment he's town's best center back on form um he's clearly been a been a big success is he the sort of player do you think you could step up to the Premier League though. Massively, yeah, 100%. It comes with obvious caveats that he has certain limitations that could be an issue, but the Premier League is evolving where physicality is becoming more and more important. We saw that a little bit last season where we had so many debates about are town physical enough? No. And I think that teams have learnt from that this season and that's why you've seen in particular Leeds and Sunderland have come up and they've signed very physical, quite experienced players to help them adapt to the level and it's worked really, really well.

43:00So I think that Kipre will fit in well with that. The other thing as well, if Hipswich are promoted, we're looking ahead a little bit here, if they are promoted, the absolute number one thing I would be doing would be playing a back three in the Premier League next year, a back three or back five. Leeds are the perfect case study here. They played a 4-1-4-1 for most of the season. They were absolutely crap. They were destined to get relegated. Daniel Farker's job was under pressure. And he thought, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to play 3-5-2. And they've lost like twice since he's made that switch.

43:31They've almost took a point off City. No, they drew City, didn't they? They drew Liverpool. They've beaten Chelsea. They drew United over the weekend. They look a totally different team. And that would be the first thing I'd do if I'm Kieran McKenna. I think that would suit Kipra quite well.

43:45Mark Heath:I'm digressing again now. I know you said that. But who would your back three be then? Are the back three already in the building? or would you want to recruit for that? No, I'd want to recruit for that. You'd need at least another centre-back. I'd feel comfortable enough, to be honest, with a back three of Greaves, Kipre and O'Shea, but definitely I think you'd want at least one other to come in there and compete potentially too. Yeah, it would be interesting to see how that would happen, but if you had O'Shea, Kipre and Sainer, a top expensive centre-back for Premier League level with Greaves able to step in, probably with another player then able to step in.

44:24I think that would work quite well. So that's how I go about that.

44:27Mark Heath:I like it. Keep playing in the middle of that. Definitely would work. Right, January... Luke on Twitter says, January, you can sign a maximum of three players, not considering he would let go, squad pace, etc. Who would you sign? He says, for me, Dan Neal, Amdrey Goodjohnson, and Joel Pirro, who features on your... Does he feature on your striker? He does feature on my striker. He does, yeah. so that that's there's luke's three thoughts on that and what would your three be um thoughts on luke's three so dan neil like him a lot how big an upgrade is he on what ipswich have probably a bit on alone with maybe a an option would be good um he's only really young as well he's got a bit of premier league experience from sunderland captain sunderland when they uh went up so yeah i'd like that uh if the fee was right who was the second one uh where are we andrew good johnson yeah yeah for make sure you get the right good johnson as well so you're not referring to someone from years ago um yeah again ticks a lot of boxes would probably perform better in a a um team that creates significantly more than blackburn do i'd have question marks over him stepping up into the Premier League so soon, to be perfectly honest.

45:45But again, I like a lot of what he'd have. And the last one was Joel Perrault. I wouldn't sign two strikers in this window, personally. I think that would be a little bit overkill with the options Town have. On paper, Joel Perrault, I think, would work. It would tick almost every box. He's experienced at this level. He's a clinical, ruthless finisher. He was ridiculous at Swansea, delivered well with Leeds. Pardon me. I don't think it's a stylistic fit, personally. I think that he doesn't press, basically, and that was one of the big frustrations that Daniel Farker has had with him. That's why Farker played him in the 10 role for quite a while.

46:27I think Kieran McKenna would demand more from a striker than Pirro would offer, because Joel Pirro is hang around the box, run, shoot, score. Whereas a Nipstwich Town striker requires a lot more than that. So I like him, but I don't think it would work out. Okay. Right. Our old friend... Was I supposed to name my three, though? Oh, you were, yeah. Oh, that's really tricky. I obviously can't go crazy and just be like, yeah, we'll sign Messi or whatever. Realistic, I think. Realistic. I'm going to sign a midfielder, a 10, and a striker. my deep-lying midfielder is going to be Tim Irobunum from Everton hoping that they strengthen in January and would let him go because I think he would be an excellent addition my number 10 is going to be George Erthy on loan from West Ham so taking two Premier League loanies so yeah, George Erthy would be my one there delivered at Bristol City on loan before again, if that had an obligation or something that would be great don't know if West Ham would agree to that but I think he's a very talented number 10 who can also drift out wide.

47:41And then a striker as well. I don't know if he'll make a list, but Fraser Hornby over Darmstadt in Germany. He's Scottish. He bangs him in for fun over there. He was on my list over the summer. He's 6 '5". He's like a younger Kiefer Moore. Probably not quite as prolific in front of goal, but I think he's great. So Fraser Hornby, Tim Irogbunam, and George Earthy are my three.

48:06Mark Heath:like it right then uh as i say our old friend uh the great wall in wallbank wants to know moon boots or wellies uh now i'm not familiar with what a moon boot is if i'm honest uh i can definitely say i'm not a wellies man i think wellies are seriously overrated uh i can in principle they sound like a good thing you put them on you feel immobile um my wife has got again i don't think that's really me no um so i'm gonna say neither ian uh i just go for a good solid walking boot my wife has got a pair of posh hunter wellies all right again they're not they're just not for me how about yourself um i will answer the question even though my answer is actually neither um and i i would take wellies over the two i used to have some like ski boot kind of things that if i ever was going walking in like a lot of mud or like some sort of bonfire night or something like that I would wear.

49:02I don't think I still have those. So I'm going to say ski boots, but that wasn't the answer. So I'll take, so it wasn't in the question. So I'll take, I'll take wellies of the two.

49:11Mark Heath:As an aside, took myself off Saturday to the sales in Bury, my favourite shop, Javelin in Bury. Got myself, I suppose, what you call a parka, very Oasis-esque parka. It's one of the most warm things I've ever owned. And it's definitely, probably going to be on me when we escort the lucky winner of our competition to portman road on generally a 31st um i feel very much as if i'm a bit a bit i've got a bit of the liam gallagher swagger when i wear it um anyway that was definitely an aside where are we uh one more question from tom and then we can do the fun ones not saying this isn't fun tom of course but i mean the more like hard ones tom wants to know let's hear your team suggestions for the cup game gents he says i'm putting sammy says i'm putting sammy smoddix up front if he's better um it might even try a zone on the right he can't miss any more from there than he does in the middle otherwise i'm going with mark heath's team for pompey which um was mcateer on the right and jack taylor um so he's saying go pretty strongly in that case that would mean playing azor matasewa the back the back four that we're used to walton in christian waltz yeah what do you reckon i wouldn't be doing that personally i would i would try and do some rotation it's harder isn't it after the pompey game has been been postponed because you're now looking at if you rotate you've got players that aren't going to taste match action for two weeks which is um could obviously have its benefits for the rest but negatives from uh from kind of being a bit rusty when they come back in that blackburn game looking at blackpool then so let's run through it.

50:49We'll have Alex Palmer in goal for me. Right back, again, depends who's in the building still at this point because Harry Clark's kind of missing in action and Ben Johnson isn't really getting much of a sniff. So I will take where am I going with this? I will take Ashley Young right back. The centre backs, this is difficult almost because you don't see two left-footed centre-backs playing together, do you? I've hardly ever seen it.

51:25I will go, yeah, let's change it. I don't know whether this would happen, but I'm going to go Bagot on the right. Why not? Against the former club, isn't it, Blackpool? With Jacob Greaves on the left. I was thinking about Greaves at left-back, but that seems a bit counterproductive against a League 1 team so i'm gonna put uh leaf davis sorry mate you're gonna have to keep he's gotta play yeah he's gotta play there's no other alternative who got left back um midfield again we don't know if there's going to be signings before this point uh i would absolutely not be playing as all matter see you were so humphreys is still in the door i'd go with a three of cayusta taylor and humphreys as the three.

52:12I'm kind of working on the assumption that Smollex isn't going to be in for this game, but he could be potentially. On the right, I'm going to go... Oh, this is really difficult because I was thinking start McAteer against Pompey. So you could start Burns against Blackpool.

52:30Mark Heath:Yeah. But now McAteer's lost the opportunity. I'm going to stick with Burns against Blackpool. So Burns on the right, Jack Clark on the left, and even as on, if he can't score at least 12 goals against Blackpool, then what is he doing? Who's playing as a 10 then out of Taylor and Humphreys, I guess, would be the options. Humphreys. Humphreys goes in the 10. He's played that role for Wickham, kind of as a left-sided number 10. Let's have him do that. I think that'd be a midfield that would work. You don't need, I would hope, famous last words against Blackpool, the protection of like a Matasiwa in that game.

53:03I'd hope that Taylor and Jens could do the job by himself and give Cam Humphries kind of a free-roaming role in that number 10 position, I think would work quite well.

53:13Mark Heath:I like that team. I think my only change, as much as I'd love to see Wes Byrne start, I'm still worried about him playing so many minutes. I'd go McAteer. I think Leif Davis would feel very hard done by being chucked out there. You've got to play, mate. Sorry about that. Well, who do you start at left back? Well, exactly. That's the problem, isn't it? The only option you could do, yeah, could you turn to the 21s and try and do that potentially? but that then feels almost a bit wrong to throw in a 21s player against league one opposition i don't know there are ways of going about it but um i would not be at all surprised to see leaf davis playing against blackboard over the weekend there's uh sompto bonifast isn't there in the in the 21s he's a left back isn't he from memory i think yeah yeah so they could do that or at least maybe split the minutes i would think it'd be quite difficult for for leaf to god he's gonna have to go again and then play the full 90 would be quite rough but um at least find a way to to split that or potentially the other alternative you could do is is go kipra and bag it and put greaves at left back um but against blackpool it feels a little bit wrong in a way to be playing a center back at that left back you want to have someone that's going to be pushing up that flank starts snowing and he towers breaking news um i think i suppose talk about leaf i mean from a players point of view players want to play you'd imagine so yeah there you go that's what they're paid for right then let's finish with a couple of light-hearted ones shall we um this is right up your street hey jay craig henry best slashed worst media screen you've ever had ever oh ever god that's really difficult um let's start with the worst and i'm gonna have to throw a club under the bus who's it gonna be um united tasted good but had the texture of eating into a rock city and the scary chili jam salmon was rubbish, to be perfectly honest.

55:02I was so disappointed by Man City. Didn't you get personalized cupcakes at Man City, though? It had the little Man City logo on that. That was probably the only thing that saved it. But the actual food, the lunch they served, I was so disappointed. I was kind of a bit disappointed by a lot of aspects of the city. They didn't let Ross in as a photographer, for starters. The lunch was pretty average. They had a little underground bunker of a press room. It felt a little bit rubbish. It's probably to punish people for reporting on the charges, I would say. But who am I to say? So that would be up there.

55:36And also, I'm going to have to throw Birmingham into it because I've not been to Birmingham and enjoyed my food. Yeah, sorry, Birmingham. It's something that Tom Bargner needs to sort out best. Villa is up there for sure. They were really good last season. Wolves, I asked for a small plate of food and the one was like yep small plate and was filled it to the top and it was actually a small plate so i turned and looked at stews and it was like even bigger um and that was really good uh but i can't know past top them because it was like going into some sort of swanky michelin-style restaurant so um was it what you had exactly what you had uh it was sunday lunch i think for that wasn't it was it sunday kickoff so we had some of that um we had like a oreo mousse pot they had all the cheeses there was all sorts it was really really cool um i think i've got the photos up somewhere if you search on my twitter account you'll find all of them uh but yeah tottenham wins it for me that was that was very snazzy uh just again at risk of annoying people because

56:34Mark Heath:they go shut up heat your freeloader but the um the food at uh the food at portman road has also significantly been upgraded i mean like a sort of league one days you get a pie that was it a pie nothing else and now obviously you get some some top-notch food i have to say actually last time i was there shift for wednesday we had some sort of pork chili didn't we pork oh that was good yeah that was really good it had a bit of a kick to it as well the best food i've ever had covering anything if you're interested was covering usc at the o2 unbelievable food basically a buffet then they brought out literally a cheese board then they brought out a platter of cakes and then afterwards they just had these massive bowls of sweets you just help yourself to um tremendous i will give credit to chelsea for that there was a decent breakfast but it was the fact then they had all these other asides and everyone was just going for a fry up and i was like is nobody going to have the the cheese board here and i just went over and filled my plate up loads of smoked salmon all sorts great yeah there you go we're not privileged at all enough you can't yeah yeah i was getting the smoked salmon on yeah get the cheese board out give me a cheese board yeah who says we're privileged uh final question joe doggett on instagram which it's which town player would you trust with your dog for the week this is a brilliant question by the way joe would you trust your dog for the weekend?

57:47Mark Heath:He says, also shout me out. And now Joe is in Australia at the moment. So I hope you're having a good time out there in Australia, Joe. I'm a bit envious, if I'm honest. Right then. Who would you try? I mean, Benson, my dog is obviously the most precious thing on earth to me. Probably even more than my wife. Don't let her hear that. But who would I trust to look after him? I mean, we have to go through a serious selection process before we leave him with anyone. So of the Ipswich Town players, who would you trust most, AJ? so i'm going to give you two answers here because last season i spoke to two ipswich town players about their dogs that's right yeah i got the proper vibe of how much they value their dogs number one he is still an ipswich player for now conor chaplin um he spoke about uh his dog which he said was what probably his favorite thing i don't know was it for his family or his dogs it was dogs yeah the dogs was um his favorite thing probably my favorite thing in the world he said dogs um i pulled him up after as he was walking out said what was the dog and he said it's a gorgeous staffordshire bull terrier that um he's got so that will be number one um and then also george hurst was the other one i asked about um and uh pushed him on what the dogs were he's got a boxer as well which he said if you know what boxers are like that's a mental decision yeah that's what he said and um probably the reason i'd lean towards george hurst i love this he also has a greek hair hound that he adopted uh rescued from cyprus which i thought was so good and if you're that kind of person that um looks to take on rescue dogs as everyone should do in my opinion i think that's always the way to bring in new dogs um then i think that you're a good person a good dog owner um and i have a lot of respect for george hurst for that one he he he loves his dogs he really loves his dogs so um i'm gonna edge it to george hurst on this one i don't trust anyone who doesn't like dogs in the same way i don't trust anyone who says they don't like cheese um the conversation we just had i don't know how i don't understand how you can't like dogs they're literally love personified embodiment of love uh based on what you've just told me there i'd go with conor chaplin not only is he top bloke but he's also got experience with bull breeds um i love staffies uh so he'd be safe in in chapa's hands i also where he's still here i'd be considering luke wolfenden because i know he's got rotties hasn't he again quite a similar sort build and breed to my particular hound so I'd also ask Wolfie to look after Benson obviously no longer an option friends that brings us to the end of Mailbag some excellent questions a good mix there as well and just by way of ending it AJ and without spoiling what you've done this morning we've talked about strikers we've already talked about Joel Perrault do you want to just throw a couple more names out that are on your list not all of them because I want people to go and read it but maybe a couple of interesting people like names don't they people do like names and that's when i have to get the the list back up um i'm gonna try and do some that i've not done before because there are a couple of repetitions on there because ultimately the same names will come about and for different reasons the players that come on and off um let's take a championship name in zan vipotnik of swansea city that is a name exactly uh the championship's a bit devoid of strike options at the moment i don't think there's great and the The ones that are performing well are not going to be sold to Ipswich because they're quite often playing at championship rivals.

1:01:09This, let's be honest, would still be a very difficult sell because Swansea have just added Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart as part owners. They've clearly got a bit of cash to throw around. The Popnik, I believe, is on 10 goals for the season, but he's 10 goals for the season at a terrible Swansea team. They've been rubbish, and we saw that when we went to Swansea. And to have that kind of return is really good. He's a physical, tall, golden boot contender, ticks all the right boxes. He's 23 as well. So he would be one that I would look at. Who else am I going to do that? Would you like the ex-blue on the list or would you like the man who finished second to Lionel Messi in a golden boot race?

1:01:52Mark Heath:Oh, man, that's hard because both of them are interesting. I think most people know who the ex-blue is. So let's avoid that and you can go and read about that. let's do the man who finished behind Messi yeah the one thing I will say about the Exploers is he's probably the most ambitious target on the list I think he would probably take a championship record fee and I wouldn't necessarily say the same about the man who finished second to Lionel Messi in the Golden Boot race Sam Surridge remember him played all around and kind of especially in the south coast of England on loan I think he was in non-league initially was at Bournemouth got sent out to Stoke I know that's not the south coast but that was when He first went up and then ended up at Forest.

1:02:30He's never really delivered. There's been a lot of elements that people like of his game. That's why he's been at so many pretty good level clubs, like Forest and Stoke, but he hasn't added the goals to his game. He's tall. He can hold up the ball really well. And then he's gone to Major League Soccer in 2023, over to the States, to Nashville. And last season, he scored 25 goals, got three assists in 37 games for Nashville. They're thus finishing second to Messi in that golden boot race in MLS. Just seems a massive handful. And if you put the ball on the plate for him, he will score it. He's had 116 shots, XG of 25.8.

1:03:12So basically, it means if you put the ball on the plate for him, he will probably put it into the back of the net. Chased by Wolves, which could make it quite difficult, not like the animal, like the team. So he is a Wolves target. but could Ipswich go in there put some money on the table and attract someone who's got a hell of a goal scoring record in the States, I think he would tick a lot of boxes for a Kieran McKenna side so those are two, go read the other six there's plenty more of these pieces to come as well, I know we're going to have a look at EFL signings probably, we might look at Premier League loanees, some Matasiwa cover I know is important, it's a huge long list I've got, I'm going to be spreading them out over the next week or two and yeah, keep your eyes peeled on some of those.

1:03:55Mark Heath:Yeah, go and read it, as AJ says. Some really good names in there. My favourite name in there is not actually a target, but just a man that I can't believe is real. Jizz Horncamp, which makes my 13-year-old boy inside me just start cracking up. Good old Jizz. It's a good hint on who the ex-blue is as well. Yes, that is an excellent name as well, isn't it? God. Get Jizz in. Don't get Jizz in. Right, one final thing to talk about, AJ, is something that's happened this morning. Ruben Hammering having basically asked to be sacked yesterday, has duly been sacked. And again, we find ourselves here where Kieran McKenna will inevitably be linked, but we wouldn't expect him to be among the kind of top favourites this time, you would say.

1:04:37Mark Heath:We were actually talking before we came on air, as it were, about the list of favourites at the moment. He's fairly well down the list, isn't he? Depends where you look at the moment. How many minutes ago? Three minutes ago I had my third PR email of the day from Odds Checker. Genuinely, it's 11.29 in the morning. I've had emails at 10.23, 10.27 and now 11.26 about Manchester United manager odds, which is good. Most of them have McKenna quite low but the most recent ones which came, I think, from Odds Checker have Kieran McKenna at 10-1 which is higher than the 20 previously. So they have Mareska as the favourite 3-1, Glasner at 5 Darren Fletcher is an interim charge at 5-1 Gareth Southgate at 8-1 and Xavi Hernandez at 10-1 which would give McKenna roughly a 7 % chance being the new Manchester United manager Simply put, who knows until we start to whittle some of these names down I think it's going to be very up in the air I think the odds are going to be hectic for the next 24-48 hours Would Manchester United go for Kieran McKenna?

1:05:47They've obviously shown interest in him in the past after he got town promoted They went down a different pathway there. They stuck with, who was it, Eric Ten Hag, and then appointed Amorim. To me, it feels like it would be incredibly unlikely that McKenna, A, would see this as the right opportunity at the right time, despite his links, and B, that United would see him as the right option. But yeah, here we go again, is how it feels a little bit, isn't it? We'll keep a track on the odds. We'll keep a track on the news. Business as usual for now. I think it's important to stress.

1:06:21Mark Heath:Yeah. Poison chalice, that club, isn't it? Clearly massive, you know, pull factors. One of the biggest clubs, if not the biggest club on the planet. Big amount of money. But equally, it just seems to be a complete basket case. One day, someone will go in and turn it round. But I don't know. I thought it might have happened after Sir Jim Radcliffe was visited by three ghosts over Christmas. They got him to change his wicked ways, but seemingly not. No. Okay. We'll watch the space on that one. Anything else then, AJ, before we take our leave and get cracking on? You'll write in a bit for tomorrow morning about, based on what Keira McKenna said regarding Connor Chaplin, about evaluating loans and loan needs and that kind of stuff.

1:07:02Mark Heath:That's what we're doing for 6am tomorrow. Is there anything else you want to talk about before we head on? No, not really. Welcome to the transfer window, isn't it? We're going to be having a look at that. There'll be some more transfer targets pieces. I'm sure we'll get some more rumours to come soon. I wouldn't expect this to be a huge transfer window for the town in terms of recruiting numbers but it'd be fascinating to see what the positions are and how they shape the squad both with incomings and exits so we'll be all over that we'll share our thoughts we'll do some predictions we'll have a look at transfer targets all of those things keep your eyes peeled yeah just to remind and support our sponsors use the code KOA at stardustspirits.co.uk for 20 % off all their excellent alcoholic beverages I know many of you are doing dry January as am I by the way have I mentioned that I'm doing dry January um makes me a better person than you uh that's generally the feeling isn't it when people say about dry January um anyway if you're not doing dry January use the code KOA at stardustspirits.co.uk uh 20 % off and also friends use the code KOA10 at molecular-uk.com um for 10 % off all that excellent car cleaning and other products my wife um having heard me waxing lyrical about their interior cleaner the banana of Dine off the top of my head it's called used it in her car yesterday and was thoroughly impressed I can report that back um so don't just take my word for it Mrs Heath who is more often not right about everything of course um is a big fan uh friends uh we didn't have a game to talk about but hopefully we filled an hour or so at the start to uh 2026 the first Monday of 2026 we've entertained you we are off now to do some work I'm also going to put a call straight in to it's which town to find out when we're getting a cheese board in the media room at Portman Road that's the big thing i want to find out friends have a great start to your week and we'll be back next time to talk to you all over again

1:09:15Thank you.

1:09:48Thank you.

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